Google Getting More Than Pretty Pictures with Skybox

Skybox depicts the fill and volume of oil containers over time at the Ras Tanura Oil facility in Saudi Arabia.

Skybox Imaging Inc.

Skybox, the satellite imaging startup Google has agreed to acquire for $500 million, may become part of Google Maps – a largely free service that provides images to the public.

But Skybox CEO Dan Berkenstock also pitches the firm as a data miner that helps big investors and other corporate clients gain intelligence from aerial photography.

For example, Berkenstock said Skybox’s images of Foxconn factories in China that make iPhones could help predict when a new iPhone will launch. Skybox has imaging software that estimates the fill and volume of oil containers at the Ras Tanura oil facility in Saudi Arabia. It also counts the number of planes flying in and out of a Beijing airport.

The images could also shed light on political crises as they unfold. During protests in Kiev, Ukraine earlier this year, Skybox published images that helped spot structural damage, scorched ground, and the movement of tents and barricades. It also searched for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 – to no avail.

Skybox’s analytics business is nascent and was not the main reason why Google acquired the company, according to a person familiar with the deal. However, some of the examples of how Skybox images can be used show the potential value of the information, when combined with the analytics and computing capabilities of a company like Google.

To develop an analytics business, Skybox would need more than its current one satellite. Analyzing satellite imagery typically requires viewing the same spot repeatedly, to identify changes.

Startups specializing in small satellites have sprung up because the cost of building materials and computing power has gone down dramatically. The quality of the camera is especially important for these data-mining purposes because imaging software recognizes different objects by distinguishing between gradations of light.